I found myself up and going at the crack of dawn. Race days always make me wonder why I am a runner. I mean honestly it was cold, dark, and foggy! Why do I do this to myself? But thanks to the generosity of the Mermaid Series the San Diego Mom's Run This Town chapter had received a free entry. They had held a little competition to encourage us runners and get the new year started right. A winner was chosen at random and I was the lucky winner!
I was super excited when I received the message letting me know I had won. It was the perfect timing, a few weeks after my marathon and I could hopefully finally get the sub 2:20 I was looking for. And then, as my previous post stated I had a car accident. That slowed my training down. It is so important to listen to my body. While I am cleared by doctors to run I also make sure I listen and if my body is hurting then I adjust. That means the plan to continue training hard for those 3 weeks slowed to plan to just maintain as much fitness as possible. And I did. Had some good training runs, and some not so good training runs leading up.
The morning of the 1/2 dawned cold and foggy. The drive in was a little nerve racking. I got to the race a little unsure of where I wanted to park. The parking situation was a little different. While the course loops around Mission Bay and Fiesta Island the start line is about 1.5 miles from the finish. I had planned on parking at the lot right between the start and the finish. However, when I pulled up and it was PITCH BLACK and foggy with minimal lighting between the planned parking lot and the start line I decided that was not the right option. I parked by the start, opting to have a good 1.5 mile cool down at the end. I will say the bathroom setup was not to bad and I had the chance to meet up with some other running friends, always helps to keep the nerves down.
 |
| o dark 30! Fog and all but ready to run, right? |
As the 10Kers headed out I got lined up and positioned myself between the 2:20 pacer and the 2:30 pacer. I had already decided to scale back on my goal and take a sub 2:30, it was still a PR so I was okay with that. The course starts behind Sea World and I had run the course a few times already. I spent the first 4 miles adjusting my new fuel belt (now I know why you don't run a race with untested gear). It was a fast 4 miles because I am not usually a fan of running on Fiesta Island, the sloped road bothers my hips, but it is a fairly easy run and the foggy started to burn off so it warmed up nicely and was a pretty run. Then as the course opens up around mile 5 onto Mission Bay Drive you get a nice easy flat run pretty much the rest of the course. It is a wide street and the course was well marked.
The course was pretty well supported with water stations. Running in Mission Bay races is usually a little tricky because they can't close the path to the public, but overall it was a slower day so that part was not as bad as I was afraid it would be. I won't lie, the last 3 miles coming back into the finish was a little difficult for me. The course goes onto the bike path at this point and there tend to be some slight elevation changes you have to account for. Overall I was just tired at this point and because the road is closed it makes it difficult for spectators and cheer squads to get down there so it was pretty quiet as far as that goes. The finish line however is set up nicely and they were very well stoked with water and food. I LOVED the post race refreshments and while I finished at 2:28:59 (I got my PR) and feel confident those finishing after me received the same food as me and that always makes me happy. There is nothing worse then finishing a 1/2 Marathon and there is NOTHING left because you are a back of the packer.
 |
| These ladies are some awesome momma runners, friends, and Ragnar 2016 teammates! |
After the race there is lots of space to stretch, meet up with friends watch the kiddos run their race. Overall, it was a great race to run. I know a lot of people that PRed and a great one to run with younger girls because you get the t-shirt, medal, and a necklace at all the distances. I mean who doesn't like BLING?
After this last race I have had time to sit back and really focus on where I am heading in my running now. Stay tuned, that is a post for another day :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment